The future as directed by Paul Verhoven doesn’t nessecerilly lend itself to a complete auteurist theory point of view, afterall many of these films are written by other people and chiefly come from stellar source material. However there is something about that distinctly Verhoven vision and film-making style that leads to all of his films set in the future, or with major futuristic elements, being brought into a majorly sensationalised realm, and a particularly satirical one at that. None more satirical than our first film Robocop.
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Robocop (1987)
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A perfect film. In no uncertain terms. I personally may prefer the wildness of Recall, but when it comes to pound for pound perfection in Verhoven’s cannon, one can’t not choose Robocop; ‘Part Man, part machine, all cop’. With a sharp acid tongue of dark humour and satire punctuating a thrilling action film concept, Verhoven takes Edward Neumeier and Michal Miner’s script and makes the film equal parts hilarious comedy and intense dramatic tragedy. A reliance on realism and penchant for the most pitch black of comedic beats allows for everything to land just about as deftly as one can, exemplifying like no other film in Verhoven’s cannon, his absolute mastery for tone and definition of ideas and concepts. All this culminates in one single final word that in one utterance manages to convey and solidify a triumphant arc of its hero as they navigate the most insurmountable and most inconceivable of struggles. Peter Weller appears in a role where he must not only deliver a complicatedly monotone voice performance, but also embody that of a machine that we can’t even conceive of, blending the remnants of a human with modern machinations of human-less robot design. Weller and his partner in Nancy Allen do have a lot of the films finest human moments, however for me the film really is at its most successful when it is parlaying within the more absurd and heightened worlds of its two bands of villains; that of the slimy super 80’s business grease balls of OCP and the almost cartoonishly villainous and manic members of Clarence Bottacker’s gang of thugs, who we also learn are a part of the super OCP corporate machine. However ultimately the films undoubted core victory is that the performances of the entire ensemble, the words and work of the writing team and the impeccable practical effects and makeup of the design team are all incredibly on the same page. Robocop really is a satire, action, sci-fi masterpiece for the ages and as aforementioned, pound for pound, may certainly be Verhoven’s best outing.
Total Recall (1990)
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On the other hand, Total Recall may be Verhoven’s funniest and finest blast of a film. This is Verhoven at his most anarchic and also very infectiously at his most fun, one can’t help but completely be overpowered and sucked in by the absolute absurdity and bombastic character of this film at times. Adapted by multiple writers across multiple drafts from the original Phillip K Dick short story We Can Remember it For You Wholesale, Total Recall takes us upon a truly madcap tale through a future earth and eventually mars as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Douglas Quaid comes into the knowledge through a future form of memory installed vacation that he may infact be a spy, and whereas other films and other plots may tell this tale in a somewhat subdued paranoid spy thriller manner, Verhoven and all involved take this tale to the max and instead give us one of the most rollicking and eminently rewatchable sci-fi action films of all time. One wonders to what extent the heightened nature of the film was taken even further by the introduction of the super serum that is Schwarzenegger. Personally I feel that Arnold is very solid in this film and beyond his complete machine brutality of The Terminator, this may very well be the best employment of his particular set of skills we ever had in a film. His comedy is knowing and effective, his action prowess is on display to a profound level and it also features the best and most believable chemistry he’s had with his love interests (planted or otherwise) ever on screen. Rachel Ticotin is the chief interest of course, but is so much more than a damsel, in so many ways she’s the leader of the rebellion or is at least the one actually doing the work. However one cannot deny that the absolute wonderwork revelation of the film is that of Sharon Stone in a sort of rehearsal for Catherine Tramell of Basic Instinct fame, her power and control in the use of her sexiness and action is some of the most intriguing and awe-inspiring leading role stuff one will ever see. Ronny Cox too appears as a similar slimeball to his Robocop role, however here with a touch more pure villainy and lack of control. Overall Total Recall is exactly what is sets out to be, one of the most rewatchable and most enjoyable films of all time, or at least it certainly is for me.
Starship Troopers (1997)
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Completely commercially and critically reviled on its initial release, Starship Troopers has once again been another Verhoven film to have a second life in the current film landscape, with another reappraisal of the inherent satire and dark comedy at the heart of it. Presented as a melodramatic, over-the-top and even at times painfully saccharin sendup of a propaganda film for a future war that of course never happened, from a book without a lick of irony in it (quite simply a pure parable and ode to the millitarian war industry machine by Robert A. Heinlein, reportedly penned over a matter of weeks immediately following the US suspending nuclear tests), Troopers is an almost perfect double bill pairing with Robocop. Whether it be in its general overall style, tone and presentation of the future or even in the more obvious manner in which it incorporates elements of advertisement and other reporting visual materials to further the core story that it's telling. Much has also been discussed surrounding the casting of the film and frankly whether or not any of the actors were in on the joke, prime examples in the leads of Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards leads one to question whether or not either of the actors saw through the chief reason that they had been cast, mainly that to the general movie going public of the time they were simply nothing more than vapid pretty boys and super-models without anywhere near as much acting talent as they had impeccable beauty. I'd of course beg to differ and point one for Richards case to her sensationally knowing composed performance in Drop Dead Gorgeous. Dien is another matter, but is still very talented in that old stoic rugged male quality that he can put on so well. Whether the actors are in on the joke or not is severally up for debate, however the chief matter of course is that Verhoven is in on his own joke - Verhoven is a master of tone and balancing multiple genres at one time, in the aforementioned current critical reappraisal many have declared this as possibly Verhoven's greatest of his films. Personally it's the least favourite of the ones I have chosen to discuss in this article, however if this rather brilliantly witty and provocative sci-fi war feature is your 4th best of your works in a genre, then you seriously could do far worse.
Hollow Man (2000)
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Not exactly the future now for our final choice, but close enough, with the 2000 sci-fi horror thriller Hollow Man, with some seriously futuristic technology finding its way into the modern world. When the pretty great The Invisible Man remake came out in 2020 everybody seemed to forget that they had already received a modernised update of the classic monster movie villain with Paul Verhoven’s film here, with a very similar actually technologically slanted view of how this sort of monster could come to life in the real world. I think the first port of call is to establish that despite coming out over 20 years ago the Oscar nominated Special effects in this film still look for the most part absolutely incredible, rather scarily in so in fact. All in all I really have to say to what extent I was taken aback by just how good this film actually was. Sure the film does have one of the worst opening credits sequences I’ve ever seen, with some truly terrible graphics, but what follows really is a horrific and very scary thrill ride that seriously holds up better than anyone could imagine. The plot of Hollow Man follows the absolute worst case scenario of the sort of God complex ego-maniac psycho that we love to hate in movies getting his nefarious hands on some truly troubling technology, in this case it’s Kevin Bacon at his diabolical best as Sebastian as he makes himself the first candidate for a government issued invisibility programme to better the war effort. An exceptional premise on its own, but Bacon’s truly unsettling performance and his unnerving charisma take this film into a whole other stratosphere of frightening entertainment. However the big winner really is the effects and the direction from Verhoven, who really does lead the final forty minutes or so of this film to be some of the best modern slasher work we got around that time. Again, the effects are so damn great that it really does lead one to wonder how the film didn’t get much acclaim beyond its general pulpy genre acceptance. A cult following has allowed the film I feel to garner a little bit more of the genuine acclaim it should have received, however this is the typical issue so many horror and genre directors face time and time again. Bacon isn’t the only great performance, although certainly is the best of the bunch, but Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolin too bring great variety to the typically bland roles that this sort of film would usually give you. The tension Verhoven manages to imbue into his final sequences is also astounding and here it really some of his best work in my opinion, despite him believing much to the contrary commenting in 2013 that ultimately he was quite disappointed with the film; “This is a movie, the first movie that I made that I thought I should not have made”, however the comments seem more so to lean towards a feeling that anybody could have directed the film, and that very specific Verhoven stamp wasn’t placed on it. I feel however with its major focus on entertaining extreme graphic violence and a bizarre combination of irony and genuine thriller elements, aswell as unsettling pervasive and perverse sexual, only Verhoven could have made this film the success that it indeed was.
The pathway has of course changed over the years, however I really do feel that in Verhoven a major director of immense talent has been ignored due to genre snobbery. There’s no ability for a critical appreciation, for we are not in the slick and artful world of a Blade Runner persay, but rather in a broadly adrenaline fuelled sensationalist nightmare of violence and heady ideas. It’s the ideas that stay with us. It’s the action that keeps us entertained. The balance is key and Verhoven’s scales are always perfect.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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